Burmese Days 缅甸岁月 Chapter 6

The morning sunlight slanted ¹ up the maidan and struck, yellow as goldleaf, against the white face of the bungalow ². Four black- purple crows swooped ³ down and perched on the veranda ⁴ rail, waiting their chance to dart ⁵ in and steal the bread and butter that Ko S'la had set down beside Flory's bed. Flory crawled through the mosquito net, shouted to Ko S'la to bring him some gin, and then went into the bathroom and sat for a while in a zinc ⁶ tub of water that was supposed to be cold. Feeling better after the gin, he shaved himself. As a rule he put off shaving until the evening, for his beard was black and grew quickly., ,While Flory was sitting morosely ⁷ in his bath, Mr Macgregor, in shorts and singlet on the bamboo mat laid for the purpose in his bedroom, was struggling with Numbers 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 of Nordenflycht's 'Physical Jerks for the Sedentary'. Mr Macgregor never, or hardly ever, missed his morning exercises. Number 8 (flat on the back, raise legs to the perpendicular ⁸ without bending knees) was downright painful for a man of forty-three; Number 9 (flat on the back, rise to a sitting posture ⁹ and touch toes with tips of fingers) was even worse. No matter, one must keep fit! As Mr Macgregor lunged painfully in the direction of his toes, a brick-red shade flowed upwards ¹⁰ from his neck and congested his face with a threat of apoplexy. The sweat gleamed on his large, tallowy breasts. Stick it out, stick it out! At all costs one must keep fit. Mohammed Ali, the bearer, with Mr Macgregor's clean clothes across his arm, watched through the half-open door. His narrow, yellow, Arabian face expressed neither comprehension nor curiosity. He had watched these contortions--a sacrifice, he dimly imagined, to some mysterious and exacting ¹¹ god--every morning for five years., ,At the same time, too, Westfield, who had gone out early, was leaning against the notched ¹² and ink-stained table of the police station, while the fat Sub-inspector interrogated ¹³ a suspect whom two constables ¹⁵ were guarding. The suspect was a man of forty, with a grey, timorous ¹⁶ face, dressed only in a ragged ¹⁷ longyi kilted to the knee, beneath which his lank ¹⁸, curved shins were speckled with tick-bites., , ,'Thief, sir. We catch him in possession of this ring with two emeralds very-dear. No explanation. How could he--poor coolie-- own a emerald ring? He have stole it.', ,He turned ferociously ¹⁹ upon the suspect, advanced his face tomcat- fashion till it was almost touching ²⁰ the other's, and roared in an enormous voice:, ,She had slanted brown eyes. 她有一双棕色的丹凤眼。,A bungalow does not have an upstairs.平房没有上层 。